I was trying ever so hard not to post this week. Miss Rose's return to the kitchen was imminent, and I have feared that the frequency of posting of late has put me at risk of becoming one of those irritating blogger's who writes about practically everything they cook. But I'd been feeling a little mopey this week after some minor afflictionsleft me irritatingly impeded, and the failure of random chance meant I missed out on somethingI'd been rather looking forward to. Naturally, any good sulk calls for ice cream, and although I almost managed to quietly wallow in my own self pity, these were just too good not to share...

The week started with an orange sorbet. This was nothing particularly new, a mere reiteration of previous sensations, but it was gorgeously refreshing, and I am becoming increasingly happy with the texture I'm achieving, so big-ups there...

Orange sorbet

This was followed by a rather delightful apricot pistachionumber. I would have liked to do this with fresh apricots, but the wine-soaked dried ones still came through, and an additional dash of brandy managed to bring it all together quite nicely...

Apricot pistachio ice cream

For something completely different, I finally got around to trying out olive oil and pine nut ice cream, and well, my goodness! The grassy tones of the olive oil work surprisingly well in the creaminess and affected a wondrously luscious texture. If you never thought toasted pine nuts would work well with sweet, just try this and then you will understand. Glorious! (Which is good, because if you give it a few days it's practically all nuts, so do find yourself a punchy olive oil to keep it coming through.)

Olive oil & pine nut ice cream

For the pièce de résistance I tried my hand at a creation of my very own. I had been rather intrigued by a recipe for bourbon and cigar ice cream, but wussed out by virtue of the fact that (i) most cigar smoke makes me gag, so the thought of gag-flavoured ice cream wasn't particularly appetising; and (ii) can you imagine me trying to buy a cigar? Ha! Instead, I decided it might be nice to stud a rather scrumptious maple ice creamwith chopped pecans and muscat-soaked dried figs. Turns out it was quite a good idea indeed...

Maple ice cream with pecans & muscat-soaked figs

So all things considered, I would hazard that there are worse ways by which one could alleviate a self-induced case of melancholy. Cheers!